Sister proved so popular at the Golden Apple last summer
that she's been invited back to whip us audiences into shape to appreciate
Christmas. Especially the part in it played by Mary, a modern version of whose
story Sister reads. Punctuating it with questions, she insists there's "a
lot of material to cover" before Christmas partying. Somehow topics like
how to pronounce Mary's dad's name (as discovered in "The Gladiator"
film), what gifts nuns find appropriate to get (any Elizabeth Taylor perfume?),
and who invented the first Christmas pageant (in 1223) get revealed. From the
big pile of wrapped presents on Sister's desk---all variations of a certain
kind of chocolate samplers, she confides---she yet rewards correct answers to
her questions with novelties like seasonal ornament, holy card, special kazoo.
Highlight of the party to come will be "our own living Nativity
scene" played against a painted stable backdrop Sister loves to unfurl. It
will feature a lit up plastic baby but all other principals and supporting cast
will be chosen from our ranks.
After a 15 minute break, casting begins, with
immediate---and hilarious---costuming
using sheets, berets, runner, tablecloths with burn holes, curtains. The
sheep gets a shaggy rug, black gloves, big black hinged paper-clip-tail. All are supplied by
costumer Catherine Evans and inflicted by an antlered stage hand known
mysteriously only as Eric. When he
finishes preparing the cast, the real mystery begins. Sister determines to find
out who took the gift of gold the Magi brought to Jesus. Using the best
techniques she's adopted from the "Forensic Files" after skillfully
arranging all the "actors" in the crime scene, Sister applies her MOP
method. That is, she ferrets out who had Motive, Opportunity, and Proximity to
the child. And she proves to be more than Maxwell-Smart!
Colleen Moore is very effective at ad libs and carrying
out director Marc Silvia's
blocking and dictate of keeping to a gently satirical tone. A somewhat pathetic little choir, drawn
from several local groups who have volunteered to sing carols, anticipates the
action and inserts musical comments toward the end. But it's all in the spirit
of a classroom comedic party. We must all become to a degree both audience and actors to enjoy an hour and
forty-five fun minutes.